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Erie, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Erie, city (2020 pop. 94,831), seat of Erie co., NW Pa., on Lake Erie; inc. as a city 1851. Pennsylvania's only port on the Great Lakes, Erie is a busy ...

Granville, John Carteret, 1st Earl

(Encyclopedia)Granville, John Carteret, 1st Earl, 1690–1763, English statesman, better known as Lord Carteret. He served as ambassador to Sweden (1719–20) and as a secretary of state (1721–24), but his favor ...

Fontana, Domenico

(Encyclopedia)Fontana, Domenico fōntäˈnä [key], 1543–1607, Italian architect. He went to Rome, where he built (c.1580) the Sistine Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore for Cardinal Peretti. When his ...

Hijuelos, Oscar Jerome

(Encyclopedia)Hijuelos, Oscar Jerome ēhwāˈlōs [key], 1951–2013, Cuban-American novelist, b. New York City, grad. City College (B.A., 1975; M.F.A., 1976). The son of Cuban immigrants, he typically wrote about ...

Alphonsus Liguori, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Alphonsus Liguori, Saint ălfŏnˈsəs lĭgwôˈrē [key], 1696–1787, Italian churchman, Doctor of the Church. He was named Alfonso Maria de' Liguori. In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most...

Piazzolla, Ástor Pantaleón

(Encyclopedia)Piazzolla, Ástor Pantaleón, 1921–92, Argentinian composer and player of the bandoneón (a large accordionlike instrument), b. Mar del Plata. He spent much of his childhood in New York, returned (1...

Wigner, Eugene Paul

(Encyclopedia)Wigner, Eugene Paul wĭgˈnər [key], 1902–95, American physicist, b. Hungary, grad. Technische Hochschule, Berlin, 1925. He was a professor at Princeton from 1930 to 1936 and again from 1938 to 197...

Capua

(Encyclopedia)Capua käˈpwä [key], town, Campania, S Italy, on the Volturno River. It is an agricultural ...

Giolitti, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Giolitti, Giovanni jōvänˈnē jōlētˈtē [key], 1842–1928, Italian public official, five times premier (1892–93, 1903–5, 1906–9, 1911–14, 1920–21). He entered parliament in 1882 and se...

Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st duke of

(Encyclopedia)Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st duke of vĭlˈyərz, bŭkˈĭng-əm [key], 1592–1628, English courtier and royal favorite. He arrived (1614) at the English court as James I was tiring of his favori...